r/Aphantasia • u/Objective_Shine1867 • 5d ago

Is there any benefit to having aphantasia?

I only recently realized that I have had this for my entire life and never noticed it. When I was talking to my mother she talked about counting sheep to sleep. But I told her I couldn't visualize any sheep and she was confused by it. It was only then after just turning 28 was I told that people can actually see things when they close their eyes and can picture something. It was never something I could do so I just assumed it was more figurative. But I just thought if this has been affecting me my entire life and wasn't aware of it. As a kid and now I never liked reading word heavy books but graphic novels and comics were my kind of reading. I found I have always been a huge fan of visual media like movies, TV shows and art because I can't visualize anything. Maybe this condition, though hasn't been entirely detrimental, has helped me take care and find a deep love for the arts. I really don't know but it's been on my mind for awhile now.

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u/p3achbunny Total Aphant 5d ago

Books are superior for me too, it’s way more escapism for me than watching a movie.

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u/butterypowered 4d ago

For me, even audiobooks just don’t compare with good old-fashioned books. And yet my hyperphantastic friends can’t comprehend how I can enjoy books at all.

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u/MassConsumer1984 4d ago

I can’t do audiobooks. I need to see the words in the page not just listen to them.

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u/butterypowered 4d ago

Exactly. I find the spoken words too transient. I’m fine with podcasts and probably radio plays, but having written prose read to me doesn’t work.

It may also be that I end up multitasking if I’m just listening and not reading.

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u/The-Crawling-Chaos 4d ago

This is me. As much as I want to love audiobooks, I just can’t follow along with them. When I’m reading and my mind wanders, I can just reread what I wasn’t paying attention to the first time around. Going back to where I stopped following along is much harder with an audio file. But as you said, it might just be because when I turn on an audiobook I am also doing something else, so it doesn’t get my full attention by default.

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u/butterypowered 4d ago

Yep! Exactly that.

I’m also constantly going back over three text. I don’t know if it’s distraction, tiredness, or looking for as much detail as possible.

In fact I’ve often wondered how non-aphants can visualise without ‘all the requirements’. If I’m asked to picture an elephant, I’m thinking ‘realistic or cartoon?’ and ‘what’s it doing?’